Lady Day - definition of Lady Day in English | Oxford Dictionaries Definition of Lady Day in English: Lady Day 25 March (the feast of the Annunciation), a quarter day in England, Wales, and Ireland.

Example sentences ‘The chairman of Shipston-on-Stour Board of Guardians submitted the estimate of expenditure from Lady Day to Michaelmas next.’ ‘He went on to explain that Good Friday this year fell on March 25, the Feast Of The Annunciation, also known as Lady Day.’ ‘But in 1689 - indeed, until early in the 18th century - the New Year did not begin until Lady Day, and that is March 24.’ ‘As Lady Day approaches - the traditional date for renewal of farm tenancies and rent reviews - the National Farmers' Union has made an appeal to landowners.’ ‘The Western medieval Christian calendar year begins with Lady Day, March 25th, the Annunciation, and that seems to underlie at least some of the imagery.’ ‘The magnificently decorated town created the ideal backdrop to the candlelight procession from St Mary's Parish Church through the town on Wednesday last to celebrate Lady Day.’ ‘The start of the financial year was forced to move ahead from Lady Day to 5th April, and then shifted one further day in 1800 (the first century year not to be a leap year).’ ‘In Britain there was an objection to paying tax in 1

753 on the normal date, that is, Lady Day or 25 March, on the grounds that a full year had not elapsed.’ ‘According to today's Daily Telegraph (Fingers crossed Good Friday does not bring us bad luck), it used to be considered very unlucky for Good Friday to fall on March 25, Lady Day.’ Origin With reference to Our Lady, the Virgin Mary.

Word of the Day Calendar Reform in England, 1752 Calendar Reform in England, 1752 It is widely known that in September 1752, Great Britain switched from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar. In order to achieve the change, 11 days were 'omitted' from the calendar - i.e. the day after 2 September 1752 was 14 September 1752. This change was as a result of an Act of Parliament - the "Calendar Act" of 1751 An Act for Regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for Correcting the Calendar now in Use. What isn't so widely known is a second change which the Act introduced - as named in the first part of the Act's title. The Act changed the first day of the year (or, if you want to impress your friends with a new word, the Supputation of the Year). Prior to 1752 in England, the year began on 25 March (Lady Day). Lady Day is one of the Quarter Days, which are still used in legal circles.

The Quarter Days divide the year in quarters (hence the name :-), and the Quarter Days are: Lady Day (25 March), Midsummers Day (24 June), Michaelmas Day (29 September), and Christmas Day (25 December). So, in England, the day after 24 March 1642 was 25 March 1643. The Act changed this, so that the day after 31 December 1751 was 1 January 1752. As a consequence, 1751 was a short year - it ran only from 25 March to 31 December. To throw some more confusion on the issue, Scotland had changed the first day of the year to 1 January in 1600 (in 1600, Scotland was a separate kingdom). When King James VI of Scotland became also King James I of England in 1603, the possibilities of date confusion must have been very large. Historians have to be on their toes with dates prior to 1752.

For example, in The Tower of London there is some graffiti scratched into a cell wall by someone imprisoned in January 1642 for his role in the Battle of Edgehill (which took place on 23 October 1642). Some unanswered questions There is considerable evidence of contemporary dual dating. For example, some essentially contemporary paintings of the execution of King Charles I on Tuesday 30 January 1648 have a title bearing the date 30 January 1648/9. Samuel Pepys's diary begins on New Years Day (1 January) 1660, but it is clear that this is actually the year 1659/60. So was the Calendar Act in 1751 merely formalising common usage, or was it a radical change ? The preface to one modern book of Samuel Pepys's diary states that using 1 January as the start of the year was common practice at that time - i.e. 1660. I've seen a pamphlet at Broughton Castle which refers to a speech made on Thursday 27 January 1658 - and the pamphlet states it was printed in 1659.

In order for the day to be a Thursday, this must be referring to 27 January 1658/9 (i.e. the pamphlet was printed some months after the speech), however the year is specified as 1658 - and not as 1658/9. So the year was commencing on 25 March in 1658, but on 1 January in 1660 ? Perhaps the answer is connected with the coronation of King Charles II in Scotland on 1 January 1651 - that's a Scottish date, for a Scottish king. Perhaps the Royalist cause used 'Scottish' dates, and the Parliamentarian cause used 'old style' dates ? Although this theory maybe doesn't sit well with the fact that from 1654 Pepys had been steward to Edward Mountagu, a General-at-Sea in Cromwell's Protectorate... King Charles II did not become king of England until 8 May 1660 (coronation on 23 April 1661), after the start of Samuel Pepys's diary.

Leap Years in the Julian Calendar In the Julian Calendar, leap years occurred every 4 years, and in leap years the 29 February was added. But remember that 29 February was in the last quarter of the year by the old reckoning. It appears that leap years were those where the year number was one less than an exact multiple of 4! The House of Commons Journal for Wednesday, February 29th, 1659 would seem to bear this out - remembering that this date is otherwise expressed as 29 February 1659/60, and appears in Samuel Pepys's diary as 29 February 1660 (just to add to the confusion). House of Commons Journal for Thursday, 29 February 1643 (otherwise 29 February 1643/4) and House of Commons Journal for Tuesday, 29 February 1647 (otherwise 29 February 1647/8) confirm this, although note the Latin form of the dates which was presumably dropped in the Commonwealth/Protectorate. The Tax Year Lady Day was one of the days when rents were traditionally due.

In fact, this practice must have continued will beyond the 18th century as I've seen paintings of large meals for farm workers on Lady Day. Taxes were also due on Lady Day. With the 'loss' of 11 days in September 1752 and the stories of riots on the street, people weren't impressed with having to pay their taxes in March 1753 like nothing had happened (in fact, as 25 March 1753 was a Sunday the taxes were due on Monday 26 March 1753 ) - so the taxman skipped the 11 days and decreed that taxes were due on 6 April 1753. And, to this day, the UK tax year starts on 6 April. Lady Day 25th March. Feast of the Annunciation Feast of The Annunciation Day Not many special days have female associations, Lady is special because in the Christian religion, it was the day when Jesus was conceived. The Christmas nativity will be 9 months later. To continue this theme, Lady day is also the feast of the Annunciation. In this context, the word annunciation means announce.

When the angel Gabriel pronounced the conception, or incarnation, of Jesus in the Virgin Mary. Lady Day on 25th March is one of the four Quarter days, the others are: Christmas on 25th December, Midsummer's Day on 24th June and Michaelmas on 29th September. In England, Lady Day was New Year's Day up to 1752. Indeed it is in England that Lady Day still has the greatest significance. Until 1971, Quarter Sessions or Quarter Assizes had a connotation with Quarter days. Nowadays Quarter Sessions have been replaced with Crown Courts. Quarter days were also the traditional day when tenants paid their quarterly rent. Indeed standard leases still have the clause: 'Rent on a lease is payable on the 'usual quarter days' unless the lease states to the contrary. Multiple Origins of Lady Day Once cannot help noticing the proximity of these quarter days to significant solar events. The winter solstice, the spring equinox (Lady Day), the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. However, the relationship is not precise because the quarter days are on fixed date 4 or 5 days after the more precise solar event.

It's as though our ancient ancestors waited a few days to be sure, and then celebrated the solstice or equinox with a quarter day. Lady Day is another example of the church appending a religious celebration to a pagan festival, the relationship between Halloween and All Saints would be another case in point. In myths described in the Mabinogion Welsh folk tales, Lady Day celebrates the union between the spring Virgin Goddess and the young solar God. In another Mabinogion tale, the spring equinox (Lady Day) is when Llew takes revenge on the evil Goronwy. According to the allegory, Llew lances his bitter enemy with a shaft of sunlight. To return to the Holy Bible, and the Gospel according to St Luke: Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. Lady Day 6th April - Tax Year Starts in the UK The original Julian calendar, which dated from Roman times, did not take into account the fact that there are 365.24 days in a year.

By the 16th century this discrepancy resulted in the seasons, solstice and other events being out by approximately 11 days. Pope Gregory XIII introduced a more accurate calendar by introducing leap years. For hundreds of years the tax year in England and Wales started on Lady Day 25th March, when the Gregorian calendar was finally adopted 11 days were added to the calendar. To ease the outcry of these 'lost days', the exchequer delayed the start of the tax year in 1753 to 6th April. From that time until this, the term 'Lady Day' is occasionally applied to the 6th of April rather than the Annunciation Day - 25th March. # Ladies Day The other connotation, or corruption of Lady Day is Ladies Day. This seems to be a feature of every major horse race meeting from Ascot to York. Lady day bears as much resemblance to these ladies days as lady does to 'ladette' - nuff said. Summary of Lady Day In view of all that it has going for it, Will and Guy are surprised that Lady Day is so little known, and hardly ever celebrated.

To recap, Lady Day is one of only 4 quarter days during the year, it falls near to the vernal equinox, and crucially, it commemorates Christ's conception. Other 'Lady' Days St Catherine's Day 25th November This is a day with several meanings: arrival of winter in Estonia, the martyrdom of St Catherine by the Romans and Catherinettes Day in France. † International Women's Day 8th March The very first International Women's Day was launched in Germany, by Clara Zetkin, on 19th March 1911 [not 8th March]. The date was chosen because on 19th March in the 1848 revolution, the Prussian king recognized, the strength of the armed people and gave way before the threat of a proletarian uprising. Among the many promises he made, which he later failed to keep, was the introduction of votes for women. If you like this page then please share it with your friends Lady Day (Pepys' Diary) The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci (1472–1475) Uffizi Gallery .

In the western liturgical year , Lady Day is the traditional name in some English speaking countries of the Feast of the Annunciation (25 March), known in the 1549 Prayer Book of Edward VI and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as "The Annunciation of the (Blessed) Virgin Mary" but more accurately (as currently in the 1997 Calendar of the Church of England) termed "The Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary". It is the first of the four traditional English quarter days . The "Lady" is the Virgin Mary . The term derives from Middle English , when some nouns lost their genitive inflections. "Lady" would later gain an -s genitive ending, and therefore the name means "Lady's day". Non-religious significance In England, Lady Day was New Year's Day between 1155 and 1752, when 1 January was declared to be the official start of the year. [1] A vestige of this remains in the United Kingdom's tax year , which starts on 6 April, i.e., Lady Day adjusted for the lost days of the calendar change.

Until this change Lady Day had been used as the start of the legal year. This should be distinguished from the liturgical and historical year. It appears that in England and Wales, from at least the late 14th century, New Year's Day was celebrated on 1 January as part of Yule . [2] Before 1751 the year began in March. As a year-end and quarter day that conveniently did not fall within or between the seasons for ploughing and harvesting, Lady Day was a traditional day on which year-long contracts between landowners and tenant farmers would begin and end in England and nearby lands (although there were regional variations). Farmers' time of "entry" into new farms and onto new fields was often this day. [3] [4] As a result, farming families who were changing farms would travel from the old farm to the new one on Lady Day. After the calendar change, "Old Lady Day" (5 April), the former date of the Annunciation, largely assumed this role. The date is significant in some of the works of Thomas Hardy , such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd .

The logic of using Lady Day as the start of the year is that it roughly coincides with Equinox (when the length of day and night is equal); many ancient cultures still use this time as the start of the new year, for example, the Iranian new year and the original Hebrew new year . In some traditions it also reckons years AD from the moment of the Annunciation , which is considered to take place at the moment of the conception of Jesus at the Annunciation rather than at the moment of his birth at Christmas. In Ireland , however, Lady's Day means 15 August, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary , and is a day when fairs are celebrated in many country towns. See also Lady Day Lady Day 25 March The 25th of March is Lady Day, or the "Annunciation" in the Christian Church calendar. Falling as it did during Lent, people would make a special effort to make what they were allowed to eat during Lent more interesting, as it was a "Feast" day on the Church calendar.

The annunciation is an event found in the New Testament of the Bible, in which the angel Gabriel visits Mary and tells her she will give birth to Jesus (see Literature section below if you wish to brush up.) The angel said to her, "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee", (in Latin, "Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.) Classical paintings of the Annunciation often show Mary being handed lilies by the Archangel Gabriel. Up until England changed to the Gregorian calendar in 1752, Lady Day was considered to be New Year's Day, because the year's measuring system, A.D. (aka "Anno Domini", "year of our Lord"), is technically supposed to be measured from the day Christ was first incarnated inside Mary. The Church chose to fix the date on 25 March each year, making it 9 months (39 weeks and 2 days to be precise) until 25 December, Christmas Day, which the Church chose to celebrate the birth of her son.

Lady Day became the first of the quarter days in a year (marking the 4 quarters of the year), and thus was the fiscal, legal and liturgical beginning of the year. That's why around this time of year many income taxes are still due, many government fiscal years end, etc. Accounts were expected to be settled or at least recorded, and rents paid. Thus, for some governments today, their fiscal year end falls around this time still. The following governments have their fiscal year from 1 April to 31 March, most of them through British influence: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Burma, Canada, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Falkland Islands, Hong Kong, India, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kuwait, Lesotho, Malta, Montserrat, Namibia, Niue, Pitcairn Islands, Qatar, Saint Helena, Saint Lucia, Singapore, South Africa, Swaziland.

The fiscal year for Great Britain itself is 6 April to 5 April (the 6th of April is the 25th of March, adjusted for the 11 days that were skipped in the conversion to the Gregorian calendar.) Though the fiscal year for the United States government is 1 October to 30 September, American taxes are still due 15 April. Eventually, though, everyone just found it easier eventually to count the New Year as starting from the start of the calendar year, 1st January. Many in England and Wales had already been celebrating the 1st of January as part of the Yule celebrations, and the trend accelerated after the calendar change of 1752. In England, Wales and Ireland (Scotland was different) the year was divided into 4 "Quarter Days": Lady Day (25 March) Midsummer (25 June, St John the Baptist Day) Michaelmas (25 September, feast of St Michael) Christmas (25 December) In Sweden, Waffle Day is called Våffeldagen.

It's also called "Maria bebådelsedag" (Maria Annuciation Day) or "Vårfrudagen" (The day of Our Lady .) Vårfrudagen, when mumbled or spoken sloppily, can even sound a bit like "Våffeldagen" (Waffle Day.) The religious meaning has faded in Sweden, but the waffles remain. In England, if the day also happens to be Good Friday, as it is occasionally because the date of Good Friday varies wildly, it's considered bad luck. There's a saying, "If Our Lord falls in Our Lady's lap, England will meet with a great mishap." Consequently, observance of the day is then moved to the first Sunday after Easter Sunday (aka "Low Sunday".) This is also the time of the Vernal Equinox. In the old Julian calendar, it used to occur on the 25th of March.

Under the Gregorian calendar (instituted 1582 in Europe), it fell on the 21st of March, though now (2006), it is more likely to occur on the 20th March (in 2007, 21st March; 2008 through to 2015, 20th March.) This is also called the "Feast of the Incarnation", because this being the day when Christ was conceived, it's technically the first day he took flesh. Literature & Lore And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste -- Luke 1:26-38.

Language Notes "Lady Day" was also a nickname for the American singer Billie Holliday. All March food days Quarter Days - A lawyer for life Home / News / News / Quarter Days Quarter Days Many leases provide for annual rent to be paid in four equal instalments "on the usual quarter days" and clients are often surprised to learn that these are 25th March, 24th June, 29th September and 25th December. How does this come about? These days are not, as one might expect, the first days of the first, third, sixth and ninth months of the calendar year and the quarters which result are not all of the same length. The explanation lies rooted in the past when England was largely an agricultural country and labourers were hired on annual contracts. Most people could not read or write and so there needed to be a simple system that everybody understood so that they knew when such contracts would begin and end. The Church was an important part of most peoples’ lives and so the Church’s calendar was followed. Under that calendar each new year began on 25th March (the Feast of the Annunciation) known as Lady Day, so that became the date from which employment contracts ran.

That date then also came to be the date from which to calculate other important financial transactions, and further dates evolved upon which payments, including rent, had to be made. So that these could be remembered easily, important fixed religious feast days were chosen throughout the year, approximately three months apart, to split the year into quarters hence the name "Quarter Days". The four quarter days in England and Wales accordingly came to be Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer Day (24th June, the Feast of St John the Baptist), Michaelmas Day (29th September, the Feast of St Michael and all Angels) and Christmas Day (25th December). Different days tended to be used in Northern England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new calendar, the Gregorian Calendar, to reform the previous Julian Calendar and to bring it more into line with the lunar year so that Easter Day could be calculated. As a result 10 days were skipped over and lost from that year.

In 1752 the law was changed so that each calendar year started on 1st January but the way in which people had become accustomed to pay their rent did not change and the "rent year" continued to commence on 25th March. In many leases, that remains the case to this day. Some landlords have, however, moved away from the traditional quarter days and many modern leases now provide for quarterly rents to be paid on 1st January, 1st April, 1st July and 1st October. By way of an aside, as well being the first day of the "rent year", Lady Day was also the start of the tax year. When Pope Gregory introduced his new calendar in 1582 the problems associated with the loss of the ten days were too much to cope with so the start of the tax year remained as the "old" Lady Day. This became 6th April under the new calendar which explains why, more than 400 years later, this remains for us the date upon which each new tax year starts.

Lady Day Lady Day The Vernal Equinox by Mike Nichols Now comes the vernal equinox, and the season of spring reaches its apex, halfway through its journey from Candlemas to Beltane. Once again, night and day stand in perfect balance, with the powers of light on the ascendancy. The God of Light now wins a victory over his twin, the God of Darkness. In The Mabinogion myth reconstruction that I have proposed, this is the day on which the restored Llew takes his vengeance on Goronwy by piercing him with the sunlight spear. For Llew was restored/reborn at the winter solstice and is now well/old enough to vanquish his rival/twin and mate with his lover/ mother. And the Great Mother Goddess, who has returned to her Virgin aspect at Candlemas, welcomes the young Sun God’s embraces and conceives a child. The child will be born nine months from now, at the next winter solstice. And so the cycle closes at last. We think that the customs surrounding the celebration of the spring equinox were imported from Mediterranean lands, although there can be no doubt that the first inhabitants of the British Isles observed it, as evidence from megalithic sites shows.

But it was certainly more popular to the south, where people celebrated the holiday as New Year’s Day, and claimed it as the first day of the first sign of the zodiac, Aries. However you look at it, it is certainly a time of new beginnings, as a simple glance at nature will prove. In the Roman Catholic Church, there are two holidays that get mixed up with the vernal equinox. The first, occurring on the fixed calendar day of March 25 in the old liturgical calendar, is called the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (or B.V.M., as she was typically abbreviated in Catholic missals). Annunciation means an “announcement”. This is the day that the archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was “in the family way”. Naturally, this had to be announced since Mary, being still a virgin, would have no other means of knowing it. (Quit scoffing, O ye of little faith!) Why did the church pick the vernal equinox for the commemoration of this event?

Because it was necessary to have Mary conceive the child Jesus a full nine months before his birth at the winter solstice (i.e., Christmas, celebrated on the fixed calendar date of December 25). Mary’s pregnancy would take the natural nine months to complete, even if the conception was a bit unorthodox. As mentioned before, the older Pagan equivalent of this scene focuses on the joyous process of natural conception, when the young Virgin Goddess (in this case, “virgin” in the original sense of meaning “unmarried”) mates with the young solar God, who has just displaced his rival. This is probably not their first mating, however. In the mythical sense, the couple may have been lovers since Candlemas, when the young God reached puberty. But the young Goddess was recently a mother (at the winter solstice) and is probably still nursing her new child. Therefore, conception is naturally delayed for six weeks or so and, despite earlier matings with the God, she does not conceive until (surprise!) the vernal equinox. This may also be their handfasting, a sacred marriage between God and Goddess called a hierogamy, the ultimate Great Rite. Probably the nicest study of this theme occurs in M.

Esther Harding’s book, Woman’s Mysteries. Probably the nicest description of it occurs in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon, in the scene where Morgan and Arthur assume the sacred roles. (Bradley follows the British custom of transferring the episode to Beltane, when the climate is more suited to its outdoor celebration.) The other Christian holiday that gets mixed up in this is Easter. Easter, too, celebrates the victory of a God of light (Jesus) over darkness (death), so it makes sense to place it at this season. Ironically, the name “Easter” was taken from the name of a Teutonic lunar Goddess, Eostre (from whence we also get the name of the female hormone, estrogen). Her chief symbols were the bunny (both for fertility and because her worshippers saw a hare in the full moon) and the egg (symbolic of the Cosmic Egg of Creation), images that Christians have been hard pressed to explain. Her holiday, the Eostara, was held on the vernal equinox full moon. Of course, the church doesn’t celebrate full moons, even if they do calculate by them, so they planted their Easter on the following Sunday.

Thus, Easter is always the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the vernal equinox. If you’ve ever wondered why Easter moved all around the calendar, now you know. (By the way, the Catholic Church was so adamant about not incorporating lunar Goddess symbolism that they added a further calculation: if Easter Sunday were to fall on the full moon itself, then Easter was postponed to the following Sunday instead.) Incidentally, this raises another point: recently, some Pagan traditions began referring to the vernal equinox as ‘Eostara’. Historically, this is incorrect. Eostara is a lunar holiday, honoring a lunar Goddess, at the vernal full moon. Hence, the name “Eostara” is best reserved to the nearest Esbat, rather than the Sabbat itself. How this happened is difficult to say. However, it is notable that some of the same groups misappropriated the term ‘Lady Day’ for Beltane, which left no good folk name for the equinox. Thus, ‘Eostara’ was misappropriated for it, completing a chain reaction of displacement. Needless to say, the old and accepted folk name for the vernal equinox is “Lady Day”.

Christians sometimes insist that the title is in honor of Mary and her Annunciation, but Pagans will smile knowingly. Another mythological motif that must surely arrest our attention at this time of year is that of the descent of the God or Goddess into the Underworld. Perhaps we see this most clearly in the Christian tradition. Beginning with his death on the cross on Good Friday, it is said that Jesus “descended into hell” for the three days that his body lay entombed. But on the third day (that is, Easter Sunday), his body and soul rejoined, he arose from the dead and ascended into heaven. By a strange ‘coincidence’, most ancient Pagan religions speak of the Goddess descending into the Underworld, also for a period of three days. Why three days? If we remember that we are here dealing with the lunar aspect of the Goddess, the reason should be obvious.

As the text of one Book of Shadows gives it, “As the moon waxes and wanes, and walks three nights in darkness, so the Goddess once spent three nights in the Kingdom of Death.” In our modern world, alienated as it is from nature, we tend to mark the time of the new moon (when no moon is visible) as a single date on a calendar. We tend to forget that the moon is also hidden from our view on the day before and the day after our calendar date. But this did not go unnoticed by our ancestors, who always speak of the Goddess’s sojourn into the Land of Death as lasting for three days. Is it any wonder then that we celebrate the next full moon (the Eostara) as the return of the Goddess from chthonic regions? Naturally, this is the season to celebrate the victory of life over death, as any nature lover will affirm. And the Christian religion was not misguided by celebrating Christ’s victory over death at this same season. Nor is Christ the only solar hero to journey into the Underworld.

King Arthur, for example, does the same thing when he sets sail in his magical ship, Prydwen, to bring back precious gifts (i.e., the gifts of life) from the Land of the Dead, as we are told in The Mabinogi. Welsh triads allude to Gwydion and Amaethon doing much the same thing. In fact, this theme is so universal that mythologists refer to it by a common phrase, “the harrowing of hell”. However, one might conjecture that the descent into hell, or the Land of the Dead, was originally accomplished, not by a solar male Deity, but by a lunar female Deity. It is Nature herself who, in spring, returns from the Underworld with her gift of abundant life. Solar heroes may have laid claim to this theme much later. The very fact that we are dealing with a three-day period of absence should tell us we are dealing with a lunar, not solar, theme.

(Although one must make exception for those occasional male lunar deities, such as the Assyrian God, Sin.) At any rate, one of the nicest modern renditions of the harrowing of hell appears in many Books of Shadows as “The Descent of the Goddess”. Lady Day may be especially appropriate for the celebration of this theme, whether by storytelling, reading, or dramatic reenactment. For modern Witches, Lady Day is one of the Lesser Sabbats or Low Holidays of the year, one of the four quarter days. And what date will Witches choose to celebrate? They may choose the traditional folk fixed date of March 25, starting on its eve. Or they may choose the actual equinox point, when the sun crosses the equator and enters the astrological sign of Aries. Document Copyright © 1983 - 2009 by Mike Nichols. Website redesign by Bengalhome Internet Services , © 2009 Permission is given to re-publish this document only as long as no information is lost or changed, credit is given to the author, and it is provided or used without cost to others.

This notice represents an exception to the copyright notice found in the Acorn Guild Press edition of The Witches' Sabbats and applies only to the text as given above. Other uses of this document must be approved in writing by This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Astrology on the Web: Lady Day, the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary Lady Day March 25: The Annunciation of the Virgin March 25 in the Christian Calendar celebrates the Annunciation of the Virgin, or Lady Day, a major Christian Feast marking the Equinox. It is the first of the four traditional "quarter days", signalling the beginning of each quarter of the year and welcoming each of the four seasons. These holidays were communally celebrated during the "Age of Faith", reassigned from already established astrologically-based pagan festivities. The other quarter days are Christmas on December 25, St John the Baptist's Day on June 24 and Michaelmas on September 29. Lady Day was originally set at the Equinox by the Church in commemoration of the miraculous conception of Jesus in the womb of his mother, Mary (a.k.a. the Blessed Virgin Mary).

Christians believe that this was the day when the archangel Gabriel was sent to announce to her that she was to be the mother of the Messiah. The Equinox has been an immensely significant cause for celebration since prehistoric times, so it was the natural choice for the conception of the Redeemer, being exactly nine months before the date chosen for the birth of Jesus, December 25 (at the Solstice ). According to the Gospel of Luke , in the sixth month after the conception of St. John the Baptist by Elisabeth, the archangel Gabriel was sent from God to the Virgin Mary at Nazareth, a small town in the mountains of Galilee in Northern Israel. Mary was of the house of King David and was espoused to Joseph, of the same royal family, in accordance with prophecy. Annunciation means "Announcement" and Gabriel announced to Mary that she was about to become the mother of a divinely-conceived child, Jesus. Of course, Mary, being a virgin, would have had no other way of knowing she was about fulfil her destiny and remake the world.

Esoterically, Gabriel is known as the Watcher of the South and was designated by ancient stargazers to the Royal Star, Fomalhaut , which some five thousand years ago marked the Winter Solstice. The Equinox and the Conception of Jesus Jesus is known as the Sun of Righteousness. The birth of Jesus (at Christmas ) is celebrated on December 25 at the Winter Solstice (the birth of the Sun, as the Sun begins to grow in light) – and the Festival of the Annunciation on March 25 is exactly nine months earlier, nine months being the generally accepted period of gestation (the growth of a baby in the mother's womb). The Catholic Encyclopedia accepts that this date is not mentioned in scripture, so is simply a convenient calculation. In fact this event actually celebrates the Vernal Equinox , when the buds of spring burst into bloom, just as Christmas celebrates the Winter Solstice, when the Sun returns from darkness.. This is a clear reference to the astrological key that, when turned in the lock, opens the door to a deeper understanding of the nature of religion. Frederick Holweck notes in the Catholic Encyclopedia that "The Annunciation is the beginning of Jesus in His human nature.

Through His mother He is a member of the human race." This is a way of saying that despite the divine essence of Jesus (Christians believe he was divinely conceived of the Holy Spirit, his mother Mary being a virgin) he also shares the character of our humanity and is not merely a spirit creature, like an angel, or a deva, as some have held. New Year's Day In ancient times, this day was celebrated as New Year's Day and marked the beginning of the new zodiacal year, at the entry of the Sun into Aries. Mike Nichols informs us that "the customs surrounding the celebration of the spring equinox were imported from Mediterranean lands, although there can be no doubt that the first inhabitants of the British Isles observed it, as evidence from megalithic sites shows". It marks a time of new beginnings, appropriately for the Immaculate Conception of the Sun of Righteousness. In England and in the American Colonies, New Year's Day was held on Lady Day until 1752 when, thanks to the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar , January 1st became the start of the year.

A vestige of this remains in the United Kingdom's tax year, which starts on April 6th – which is Lady Day, adjusted for the lost days of the calendar change. The Equinox marks the beginning of the tropical astrological year, the length of the day being equal to the length of the night as the name describes. It is the day when the Sun enters the tropical sign Aries, the Ram. The Christian logic of using Lady Day as the start of the year is that it reckons years A.D. from the moment of the Incarnation, which is considered to take place at the moment of the conception of Jesus at the Annunciation, rather than at the moment of his birth at Christmas. The Christian Feast of Lady Day has roots in a pagan past and became a major holiday during the Catholic ascendancy, though it is no longer such an important holiday today, partly due to the growth of a skeptical secularism and partly because it no longer marks New Year's Day. Nevertheless, it is still taken seriously in parts of the world where the faith remains strong, as for example in Asenovgrad, an ancient Bulgarian town with a mediï¿½val fortress, dramatic past and unique beauty.

A large church in the town is called "St. Virgin Mary – The Annunciation" Church. Worshippers from the entire district gather there, and women who want to have children bring votive gifts and sleep there during the night. Special fertility rituals are performed the next day by the priests to bless the women in the name of the Virgin. The Cardinal Cross Christian Feasts replaced their pagan competitors, smoothing the pathway to the new faith. Lady Day marks the Vernal Equinox , St John's Day marks the Summer Solstice , Michaelmas the Autumnal Equinox and Christmas the Winter Solstice. This is the cardinal cross that lies at the heart of tropical astrology – and at the centre of the Christian system. The astrological symbolism is deep, and underpins our archetypal responses to all four of the quarter day celebrations. To read more on the pagan origins of Lady Day, click here for Mike Nichols on The Sunlight Spear . |

Question: Lady Day is a quarter day in the British calendar, but on which date of the year is Lady Day?
Answer: 25th MARCH